Indeed, indeed! Good I Anon!

Feeling a bit entitled are we?

Maybe next time if you were up front about your past and your desire to move on with your life, you'll have better results. How can you be sure that the reason they didn't hire you was because they thought you were a indignant prick? That's the sense I got from our brief encounter here.

A lot of people deserve a chance and clearly some deserve it a lot more than you.

The problem is, when people get the feeling you are lying to them, they don't know what it is, so they fill in the blank with something probably worse than what it is. So, rather than assume you were a homeless drug addict, they might think you are the guy who will piss in the sauce, steal from the till, harass the other employees, etc etc... Feeling is a huge factor in hiring. If the person feels wrong, it isn't going to happen. If you want to put your past behind you, face it, own up to it, and show them that you have dealt with it.

awesome, just the kind of bitterness and hostility i would want to bring into my workplace if i were hiring.

This schmuck is kidding, right? If just a tiny bit of this attitude came across during the interview, this guy should be thankful the interviewer didn't call the cops then - hell, I would've been checking to make sure I had still had my wallet. With this attitude, this guy is still a loser!

Hey why not just be truthful and say that this is your first job. I know plenty and I mean plenty of employers who would love to hire an adult employee that hasn't picked up all of the bad habits that come with years worth of work experience. They would be happy to have someone that they can mold into just that employee the they really want. I know that you have a bit of an inferiority complex because of where you come, but I can assure you that it need not be the negative thing that you make it out to be. Some of the best people I have worked with, and some of the best teachers I've had came from some particularly hard, cold and hopeless places, and when I hear their stories it inspires me to want to do better with what I have. I don't have less respect for them because of what they were. I have more respect for them for what they endured and overcame.

So, you're the people who take this kind of shit seriously, huh?

Do you look different than the rest of us? Like, is there some way I can identify you on sight so I can just avoid you and spend my get-to-know-you energy on someone with a sense of humor?

Noah, if you're getting that worked up about these responses, then the joke's on you (and your finely-calibrated "sense of humor") just as much as it is on them.

There are certainly some people in such a position who would resent those with more power out of a simple sense of inadequacy.

But I suspect the author resents those who have all the money and power in the world simply because they are profoundly ugly, stupid and unremarkable in comparison to him/her.

I get the sense that what the author found so terribly funny was that a restaurant manager might regard them as if they're not tough enough for the job. The author would think said manager would perhaps want to consider what said ex-junkie had been doing all these years if it WASN'T working day jobs and reconsider whether toughness is really the criterion they want to use.

But I think the author would probably emphasize that indeed they found the whole thing funny. He or she would perhaps wonder why everyone else feels entitled to get mad, as it is he or she that has to starve.

Lies. LIES LIES and more damn LIES.

Creative writing major FTL.

Right. Why exactly a lie? Because I'm literate? The irony here, of course, is that the vast majority of creative writing majors couldn't throw together an effective sentence if they spent their entire lives.

Take your assumption into the scale of generalizations. Is it generally the case that people who are creative or smart or whatever are disinclined towards deviant behavior? Are socioeconomically stable? Don't do drugs? No, girl, I am FAAAR from a creative writing major. I've got the scars, and the lack of veins, to prove it.

To be perfectly honest, everyone else I know who is doing something worthwhile is an impoverished derelict with a sketchy background also. It's motherfuckers with jobs and conventional identities as artists who can't write. Which means I should watch out, I guess. Because I actually wrote the thing to celebrate getting the first legitimate job I have ever had in my life.

I'm an addict living in recovery and a former felon.

I have never had a problem getting ANY job I wanted and you want to know why?


I AM HONEST ABOUT MY PAST.

I am not ashamed of my past, it has made me into the person I am today. I never lie about it and I do not ever, ever hide it from potential employers.

You are right, the potential employers DO have a vague sense about you...that you are PRESENTLY lying. And they are right.

Plus, your attitude stinks.

That's cool, though...leaves plenty of jobs out there for people like me who actually have found a new way of life and live it using three and only three principles:

Honesty, Openmindedness and Integrity.

Seems you have none of these.

You should have hired me because I'm a liar and a drug addict. You Idiot! Put your tail between your legs, take your weathered REI gear and go crawling back to your 'lame' parents in the burbs. Leave the handouts for the drunk, PTSD vets and mentally ill.